7/20/13

It has been a very busy week. That's cuz we're going camping, leaving today and returning in a week. We're going to one of my favorite places in north Idaho. I'm excited! We'll be near where this picture was taken a few years ago.

Me and Tommy, June 2008

I'm hoping to try hiking up there this time, but I don't know how I'll do with my gimpy leg. It's a tough steep climb up for a couple miles. And it's gonna be very hot next week. I will see how it goes.

The campground has no hookups for our trailer. Just outhouses and shared water faucets placed strategically around the park. However, it does have WiFi. Whoda thunk? I'm taking my Nook tablet so I can keep in contact with the world. But I won't be able to post here while I'm gone.

Which reminds me, I won Bingo in the Imagining Ellowyne Wilde Yahoo group yesterday. WooHoo! I've won an an adorable pants and top outfit. Someone won the outfit I donated too. She lives in the Netherlands. It is kind of amazing to me to be able to communicate on a daily basis with people of like passions all over the world.

I've managed to finish two knitting projects this week-the red mittens and the purple doll dress, but I haven't had time to take pictures. So it'll have to wait until I get back.

I need to finish packing the trailer so we can hit the road. Behave yourself. Until I get back...

7/15/13

It's been the most challenging beaded thing I've made thus far. I could not use Google Translate to translate the pattern because the whole thing, including the words, was a jpg file. Google doesn't translate that. So I had to figure it out by the pictures.

It's very much like the Totally Twisted Triangle pendant I made a couple years ago. Basically, you make 6 peyote squares, each with two corners done like Cellini spiral in that you use different size beads. That's what makes the 3 corners twist.

Then you fold each square in half and sew (zip) the pieces together to form the star shape.

I absolutely love it. I'm going to turn it into a necklace. When I got it done, I declared I was never gonna make another one again. My husband laughed. He's right. I'm starting to think about another colorway it would look great in.

7/12/13

As regular readers know, my daughter, Ruth, is an accomplished knitter. I taught her how to knit a few years ago and she took to it like crazy. She clearly has a natural ability for it. Her knitting usually involves thin yarns and small needles. Her most favorite type of knitting is lace, specifically lace shawls. Recently she started creating her own designs. Which brings me to the subject of todays post.

My Ruth wants to be a knitting designer in the worst way. Me being her mother, I want to encourage and help her achieve her goals. So I am devoting this blog post to her newest accomplishment.

My daughter as designed, written, and published one of the most awesome circular lace shawl patterns I've ever seen. She calls it Sprockets.

It features a Steampunk inspired design of gears within gears. You can see it better in this picture she took just after she'd finished blocking it.

She has spent months working on this design. Then she waited weeks while it was being test knit. The pattern is now available for purchase on Ravelry.

It's knit in lace weight yarn, with suggested size 3US needles, from the center out. The finished diameter is 54 inches. The pattern is in PDF format, has 9 pages of charts and written instructions, and comes at a reasonable price of only $6.00.

If you are interested in this pattern, I'd really appreciate it if you'd go take a look in her brand new Ravelry store, and perhaps purchase it.

7/10/13

This pair of mittens is progressing nicely. I'm using Vanna's Choice yarn that was donated to Knitwits. I really love this shade of red.

I finally got back to working on the little purple doll dress I started several weeks ago.

I'm using Sugar Rush yarn again. I really like this stuff. It's very nice to work with. I've got an eyelet lace pattern on the yoke, and I'm making my way down to the waist now.

Summer is definitely here in north Idaho. The weather has been hot hot hot. And dry. We're getting "Red" fire warnings now. It amazes me how quickly things dry out around here. I took Cable for a walk in the woods today and even though it looks green, the ground crackled and crunched from the dryness with every step I took. Another few days and the moose will probably start eating my yard because it'll be the yummiest place around.

Earlier today my daughter Ruth and I worked on our Wool in the Wilde web site for our little doll clothing business we're starting. We were gonna go the Ebay route, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like it. Why do we need a middle party in there between us and Paypal collecting their cut? Lets see if we can manage on our own. I think we can. It's not going to be a huge business. Just a few One-of-a-kind knit outfits, doll jewelry, and maybe some of my own beaded jewelry too. We'll see how it goes.

Yesterday I ordered Great Depression Lizette. I really wanted her when she first came out, but I didn't think I should purchase her at the same time as her companion, Great Depression Ellowyne, due to budget issues. So I purchased just one of them. I regretted it rather quickly. She sold out right away, so I was unable to purchase her later from Wilde Imagination. I found her on Ebay yesterday, for an exorbitant price (sigh), but it could be worse. I decided to get her now while she's halfway affordable. She's going to become a rare collectible because they only made 200 of her and she's very popular. She was shipped this morning and is supposed to be here before Saturday.

Tomorrow, after Yarnies and my blood test appointment, we are going to Bear Paw Quilting to look for some fabric that will make good backgrounds for photos of the doll knits we're making. I sure hope we find what I have in mind. I want pastel shades of neutrals and forest type prints. Something that won't take away from the main focus of the pictures, but will go with the name we've chosen. I guess we'll find out whether that is possible or not. At the very least, I can get some solid colors that will work. I have background fabrics for my lightbox, but nothing I want to use. Grey, red, blue, black, and white. Blech.

The Bingo game going on in my ImaginingEllowyneWilde Yahoo group has started this week. So far, I've got 3 words on my card. Not in any row though.

Comments: I didn't do any double yarn overs in this one, just single yarn overs.

I have enough of the fur yarn left over to make another one.

This yellow butterfly landed on my glass of iced cherry Crystal Light last night. I figured it was attempting to cool off.

Did some research and found out it's aXanthotype urticaria (Geometridae) or False Crocus Geometer.It's 100F degrees today. However, predictions are for it to start gradually cooling off over the next few days.Live long and prosper. \\//

It was hot yesterday. 89F to be exact, at least, at my house anyway. Did I mention I fixed our little weather station? Yeah. Dead batteries and a reset was in order. Took my a long time to figure out that was the problem because Sweet Hubby had just replaced the batteries maybe a week before? Urg.

It was hotter in other places in north Idaho. Sweet Hubby was on his bike ride yesterday and said it was over 100 when they were climbing the hill to Plummer, ID, which is about an hour and a half south of us. I wasn't feeling up to the heat, so I closed up the house, turned on the air conditioner, and stayed indoors. I'm ashamed of myself for doing that. I should have been outside enjoying it instead. We don't have many sunny warm days left of this year.

I did some beading, and some knitting obviously. No pics yet. I didn't do the beading quite right, so I'm gonna take it apart and redo it. How on earth I got one part turned inside out before I sewed the two pieces together is beyond me!